Assailants slash car tires, write 'No Arabs, no cars' in east Jerusalem

Beit Safafa neighborhood is the scene of vandalism attack in wake of vehicular terror wave.

NOVEMBER 11, 2014 11:26

Flat tire (illustrative photo) (photo credit: INGIMAGE) — Flat tire (illustrative photo)

(photo credit: INGIMAGE)

As tensions continued to escalate in the capital following the latest spate of terrorist attacks, four Jewish youths were arrested for throwing rocks at an Arab taxi.

Meanwhile, the tires of five cars were slashed in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa on Tuesday, in an apparent “price-tag” attack.

According to police spokeswoman Luba Samri, four 13-year-old boys pelted the Arab driver’s vehicle with rocks in northern Jerusalem Monday night, damaging the vehicle and lightly wounding the unidentified driver.

“The driver called police to report that rocks were thrown at his car, and units immediately responded and arrested the four boys, who confessed to throwing the rocks, saying they did it because the driver was Arab,” said Samri.

“They were released a short time later after their parents came to pick them up, because of their ages,” she added.

On Tuesday morning, Samri said, five Arab vehicles in Beit Safafa had their tires slashed. On a nearby wall, vandals had crudely spray-painted the words “No Arabs, no cars.”

“The owners of the cars called police this morning, and we think it was a nationalistically motivated attack,” she said, adding that no arrests had been made in the ongoing investigation.

Later Tuesday, a loud explosion startled dozens of people near the city’s bustling Zion Square at approximately 4 p.m., when three stun grenades were thrown from the roof of a building, police said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that police were searching the area for suspects and had yet to make any arrests.

“The circumstances of the incident remain unclear,” he said.

Rosenfeld added that no instances of rioting had been reported in the capital’s Arab neighborhoods that day.